This invention relates to a process for the production of hydrogen gas from water.
Hydrogen is now expected to be an important energy source utilizable for batteries, fuels for engines, etc. One known method of producing hydrogen from water is catalytic decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight and a photocatalyst. Since the photocatalyst used in the known method is active only in UV light, visible light of sunlight can not be utilized. A method is also known in which water is subjected to electrolysis to obtain hydrogen. In order to effectively produce electrolysis, however, it is necessary to use a higher bath voltage than the theoretical bath voltage of 1.23 V. Therefore, when a solar energy is utilized for the electrolysis, high performance solar batteries are needed. Short service life and high manufacturing and maintenance costs of such solar batteries make the conventional electrolysis method inapplicable in actual practice.